'The Kingmaker' director calls out use of Imelda Marcos image for copyright infringement

MANILA, Philippines — "The Kingmaker" director Lauren Greenfield called out the use of Imelda Marcos' image on a huge birthday greeting billboard on the 93rd birthday of the former first lady.

"Clearly, whoever stole my image to wish Imelda Happy Birthday doesn’t understand copyright infringement," Lauren tweeted on July 2.

Clearly, whoever stole my image to wish Imelda Happy Birthday doesn’t understand copyright infringement… @mattshonfeld @instituteartist #stopthesteal #thekingmaker pic.twitter.com/KJbBFzvk9j

— Lauren Greenfield (@lgreen66) July 2, 2022

Imelda was born on July 2, 1929. Today marks her 93rd birthday as well as the return of her family to Malacañang after her son, Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr. was sworn in as the 17th president of the Republic of the Philippines on June 30.

Lauren tagged Institute Artist and its co-founder Matt Shonfeld. Established in 2009 and launched in 2010 as a media company, Institute Artist manages artists and also produces and distributes content globally.

The image was used in the official poster of the award-winning 2019 documentary film Lauren co-produced, wrote and directed.

In her succeeding posts, she called out a certain Alvin Carranza who she said is the owner of the LED billboard company.

"The owner of the offending LED billboard company is Alvin Carranza, a known Marcos apologist. Regardless of his political views, the media industry is not going to appreciate copyright infringement as it puts everyone’s IP (intellectual property) at risk of abuse. Bad business! dooh.ph," Lauren tweeted.

The owner of the offending LED billboard company is Alvin Carranza, a known Marcos apologist. Regardless of his political views, the media industry is not going to appreciate copyright infringement as it puts everyone’s IP at risk of abuse. Bad business! https://t.co/TnqtWETwBR.

— Lauren Greenfield (@lgreen66) July 2, 2022

Apart from the call out, the billboard also earned the attention of eagle-eyed netizens for its glaring  error.

The billboard read "Happy 93th Birthday First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos."